Democratic presidential candidates stood united Thursday night against the Supreme Court and its historic ruling rolling back a half-century of school desegregation laws. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said the conservative court ``turned the clock back'' on history.
Sen. Barack Obama, the only black candidate in the eight-person field, spoke of civil rights leaders who fought for Brown v. Board of Education and other precedents curbed by the High Court. ``If it were not for them,'' he said, ``I would not be standing here.''
The 90-minute debate was the third gathering of the Democratic hopefuls in a presidential campaign that has gotten off to an unusually early start. While the first two debates focused on their narrow differences on Iraq, moderator Tavis Smiley promised to steer the candidates to other issues that matter to black America, including health care, education, criminal justice, police accountability, housing and voting rights.
The debate was conducted at Howard University, a historically black school in the nation's capital.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070629/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_debate_17